Sensation: A seeker of reassurance?

Do you every wonder where discomfort comes from? Is it a perfect representation of what is going on in the body?

Does pain mean your tissues are damaged? Does hunger mean you are low on nutrients? Does thirst mean you are low on water? Does lower abdominal discomfort mean your bladder is full, and if so, how long can you safely wait before addressing it?

Or maybe you don't wonder these things. So often the process goes seamlessly without much thought.

In her book Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, Lisa Barrett points out that a drink quenches our thirst immediately, while it takes about 20 minutes for it to exert its physiological effect in the body. If we take the lack of thirst to mean the body has what it needs, how do we account for that time gap?

Could it be that we have simply REASSURED our mind that the need is in the process of being addressed?

- - -

When a runner gets a twinge of knee pain during a jog, how certain can she be of what this means, and perhaps more importantly, what the appropriate response is? Some options:
  • Tissue injury has occurred.
  • There is impending tissue injury if the activity is continued.
  • This is just a normal part of running.
  • This is a healthy sign that strengthening is occurring. "Weakness is leaving the body."
What if we apply the concept of reassurance? (Forgive the personification--we'll eventually flesh out what this actually means.)
  • The knee (ahem, the mind) is seeking reassurance it will be treated well.
  • The mind remembers a prior signal that was interpreted as knee injury, and is tweeting a warning that it might be happening again.
  • The mind has learned that stopping running often stops the signal, at least in the moment.
We could go on.

Given the multitude of possible interpretations, how do we know that the prior learning we are building upon was "accurate" in the first place? Is it possible for the process to gradually become disconnected from an accurate representation of the status of the tissue, and perhaps more importantly, from a response that accurately addresses our body's needs and capabilities?


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